Irawaty Wardany, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Entertainment | Sat, June 23 2012, 3:34 PM
Mesmerizing Mraz: Song writer-singer Jason Mraz and his band perform during his ‘Tour is a Four Letter Word’ concert at Field D in Senayan Sports Complex, Central Jakarta, on Friday evening. (JP/Irawaty Wardany)
American singer-songwriter Jason Mraz apparently managed to capture the hearts of music lovers of all ages during his concert on Friday evening at Field D in Senayan Sports Complex, Central Jakarta.
In the audience were people in their 30s and above, as well as 10 year-old children who had to bring their own a small stools to step on just to be able to get a glimpse of Mraz’s face on two big screens at the right and left sides of the stage.
They all seemed to enjoy the concert, which lasted for around two hours, despite the damp air in Jakarta that night.
The concert started at around 8 p.m., with Mraz appearing on stage in his typical style: Jeans, t-shirt and a brown fedora hat.
He opened the concert with two songs from his latest album, ‘Everything is Sound’ and ‘The Freedom Song’.
In the middle of his performance he congratulated Jakarta, which celebrated its 485th anniversary only a day before Marz’s 35th birthday.
The concert then continued with ‘Only Human’ and ‘Be Honest’.
The audience seemed to be so absorbed with Mraz’s performance that they forgot to make noise, making Mraz say “it’s kind of scary when there are thousands of you here but it’s so quite”.
Unlike the usual concerts where the audience is screaming, shouting the name of the performers, Mraz’s audience seemed to enjoy themselves with the beautiful live performance of their favorite star.
The audience started to sing a long when he sang ‘Lucky’ a song from his previous album ‘We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things’, followed by ‘Make it mine’.
“This song is for the women in our lives who sometimes forget how great they are and go crazy,” Mraz said before singing ‘The woman I love’.
Some couples were seen cuddling with their partners when the song was sung.
Mraz then toned down the concert with ‘Beautiful Mess’, ‘Ain’t no sunshine’ and ‘Unfold’.
He took the audience by surprise when he suddenly sang an old Indonesian children song ‘Di sini senang di sana senang’ (Be happy here and there), which prompted the audience to sing even louder than Mraz and leaving him accompanying the fans’ chant with his guitar.
On the 16th song of the concert, Mraz played a song he wrote on his birthday, ‘Mr. Curiosity’, on a keyboard and showed his vocal ability to belt in falsetto, causing goose bumps in the audience.
‘Butterfly’ and ‘I’m Yours’ were sung later before he closed his performance with three encore songs ‘Bella Luna’, ‘93 million miles’ and ‘I won’t give up’.
According to Ayu, a Cempaka Putih residence, who has been a fan of Mraz for years, she was satisfied with his performance that night as it was Mraz’s first solo concert in Jakarta.
“I watched him in the 2009 Java Jazz Festival, and tonight’s concert was way better than that. He made many improvisations and the band was great,” she said. (mtq)
